Nothing Gold Can Stay
by historylover
Summary: Tag for "The Day We Died." Spoilers for that episode.


A/N: Watching this episode last night… my mind… blown. So, this is just an exercise. I apologize for OOC.

Disclaimer: What an episode! Fringe puts new meaning to the word "Hellatus." Why isn't it September? And, remember the MST3K motto.

**Nothing Gold Can Stay**

Olivia woke up, her heart pounding. Although it wasn't due to fear, tension, panic, or anything like that. She struggled to remember her dream, as Walter had recommended to her. But, the dream was beyond her grasp. When she first opened up the fact that she was having this strange dream, Walter had originally thought of pulling out the LSD again. When he was talked off of that (not that he didn't decide to use the drug for himself), he suggested that Olivia write down what she remembered.

After all, it could be a side effect of controlling both machines to unite the two universes.

However, Olivia uneasily thought that she really didn't do anything. There was someone else. Someone who she was close to. But, someone who seemed to be just beyond her reach.

Every time she drove to a Fringe event, she kept thinking that there was a presence near her. She had always gone alone, or Walter was with her. But, lately, she thought someone was missing. She felt a hole in her heart, one that grew every time she went to an event. Or did any interacting with FauxLivia or Walternate.

She still didn't like or trust them. But, she grudgingly admitted that FauxLivia helped her merge their two universes together in an attempt to heal them both.

Yet… someone was missing. They didn't do it all. Someone else served as the gateway. But, Olivia didn't remember all the details.

_No,_ she corrected herself. She didn't remember any details.

In quieter, sober times, which didn't happen a lot, Walter admitted that he was missing someone too. At times like that, not even red licorice could cheer up Walter. And, whenever these quiet, sober moments happened, Walter would start reminiscing about his son. The child he had lost so long ago.

It broke Olivia's heart to see Walter like this. Particularly since Olivia could kind of remember Walter being a father to… someone. Being proud of someone.

She laid back in bed and tried to slow her breathing and heartbeat down. The only thing that she really had any recollection of was a tall, dark-haired man with amazing blue-green eyes, a great body, and a sweet half smile. Olivia had never seen him before, although he seemed so familiar. Was he the presence she kept half-remembering?

He didn't scare her or anything, although that look in his eyes made her as scared as a little girl. It wasn't a terrifying look. Just the opposite. Instead, his eyes showed such love for her. Maybe that's what scared her so much.

Her past and her childhood seemed like a half-forgotten dream, just like this young man. Was he someone she met as a child? Was he in her Cortexiphan group? In those fleeting moments that she could see him, she knew him intimately. She had seen him in the golden sunrise before the universes started collapsing. She had held his hand in the hospital. She had driven around with him, talked to him.

So, why didn't she know who he was? He was there, but just out of reach. Half-remembered and half-forgotten.

Olivia sat back up and grabbed her sketchpad. She hadn't drawn in a while, but her sketchpad was now full of drawings a couple people. The first one had an "X" on his shirt, and she knew he was the one who would one day kill her.

The other man dominated her pages, and Olivia felt a wave of comfort just looking at these drawings. The tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed man. The familiar, loving presence. He would bring her back to life.

If only she knew who he was and how to reach him…

End.

A/N: Why isn't it September? I want know what happened to Peter? Josh Jackson isn't leaving the show, is he? They have to get Peter back, right? But, how can they, if Peter never existed? But, the relationship between Olivia, Walter, and Peter is what makes this show. You take one piece away, and the whole thing falls. So, Peter and Josh Jackson isn't actually gone, right? This Hellatus is going to be very frustrating, isn't it? Why isn't it September?

And the title is from the first poem I ever memorized, which I couldn't get out of my head after seeing this episode (as I said, mind blown). It's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost:

Nature's first green is gold  
>Her hardest hue to hold<br>Her early leaf's a flower  
>But only so an hour<br>Then leaf subsides to leaf  
>So Eden sank to grief<br>So dawn goes down to day  
>Nothing gold can stay<p> 


End file.
